


The War of the Species

by Bacner



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics 1998), Buffy the Vampire Slayer - fandom
Genre: Canon Divergence, Dinosaurs, F/M, Gen, On Hiatus, Reincarnation, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 09:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24967459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: A short story, set in the BtVS/AtS universe...
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	The War of the Species

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beckysue_bonner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckysue_bonner/gifts), [lila_luscious1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lila_luscious1/gifts), [Patty_Parker60](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patty_Parker60/gifts).



> Disclaimer: Whedon owns everyone.

The great dinosaur was in trouble.

It was almost 12 feet in length, as long as the infamous tyrannosaurus rex, but unlike the tyrannosaurus, it had fully functioned clawed forearms and its’ head resembled the one of the crocodiles, rather than its’ dinosaur kin.

And, unlike the tyrannosaurus, this dinosaur was a hunter primarily of fish and other aquatic animals, not of other dinosaurs, unlike the T-rex.

It was a suchomimus, the relative of the dreaded spinosaurus, who could make even T-rex pause in consideration.

The suchomimus, of course, was shorter than its dread relative by four feet of length, and it lacked the spinosaurus’ trademark back frill, but nonetheless, it was a very imposing predator in its own right.

But right now, it had seconds left to live.

The great tsunami, brought forth by the comet that smashed into Earth just moments before, was almost upon it, and no matter how hard the desperate suchomimus pushed itself, it could not escape it. Soon the wall of water would overcome it and smash it into oblivion.

And then an unexpected happened.

An oddly shaped figure, seemingly made out of glowing protoplasm, appeared next to the dying dinosaur.

“Well,” it said in a language that the dinosaur could not understand, “you look like just what I was hired to find - not a T-rex, but a big predator all the same. Here we go, my crocodile-looking friend.”

One of the figure’s glowing forelimbs touched the running dinosaur’s chest and went inside. The desperate dinosaur’s brain did not have time to register as its’ essence, its’ self was pulled out of its body and taken across time and space, millions of years into the future.

The solid wall of water caught up with the falling dinosaur body and smashed it to pieces – but it was just an empty husk instead.

* * *

“Where are they, where are they all?” Cyrus Vail, the chief warlock of Los Angeles’ Wolfram and Hart office, paced nervously around the huge temple-like chamber. Usually, this chamber was used to test new or unusual spells that could be used to promote the firm’s business, but this time – in fact, for the last month – it was used for something more… hands-on. A large barrel has been installed in the middle of the floor, and it was full of almost 1000 pounds of various materials, such as crushed limestone and clay, and of bits of flesh and bone, as well as some seeds of certain plants, such as the extraordinary tahtoalehti fern.

A mechanized pestle continuously churned the drum’s contents, and a slender-built blonde woman was keeping the pestle churning.

“Why am I doing this, again?” she grumbled, sounding very unhappy, and showing her vampire’s fangs.

“Because, Jill, you’re the only one possessing the stamina to do so for the last month,” Cyrus Vail explained patiently.

“Yeah, and if your hirelings don’t come back within the hours, all of it will be for nothing!”

“Well, I would like to think that you know me better than that,” spoke yet another masculine voice. Its’ owner too was of the vampire variety – a stocky-built, slick-haired man with a somewhat fishy face. “Here’s your essence, Vail.”

“That’s Mr. Vail to you, Cado,” Cyrus Vail replied coolly. “Don’t forget yourself!”

“Just take the bloody essence and be done, Vail,” Cado seemed unshaken by Cyrus Vail’s attitude. “Or you changed your mind and I can keep it?”

Snarling, Cyrus Vail snapped the glowing sphere from the vampire’s hands. “There. Our business is finished. Now be off, warlock, before I staked you myself.”

“Temper, temper, Mr. Vail,” Cado muttered sarcastically, as he turned for the door, only to find it open, as yet another vampire entered the room. “Mr. Menghiz, I’ll say that you’re in for a fun time.”

* * *

“Well, where is it?” Cyrus Vail looked much more excited now that he had the glowing sphere. “Did you get a soul?”

The third vampire – Mr. Menghiz – looked balefully at the wizard opposite him. He has been turned when Kublai Khan’s armada took off on its failed conquering to Japan, and was probably the most ancient of the undead in the New World, now that Kakistos and the Master vampire of Sunnydale were gone. He was also the most powerful shaman in Wolfram and Hart’s employ, and could match Cyrus Vail in magical might, albeit divine to the wizard’ arcane.

“Yes, I brought the soul,” the Mongol vampire said in a garrulous tone, producing another glowing container, this one shaped like a test tube rather than an orb. “Her name is Kuonai Yorubi, and lady Izanami was very reluctant to let her go. Holland Manners will not be happy when he’ll see the bill.”

“Really? Well then, it’s a good thing that I’m in a bad mood already.”

“Ah, I see that you have found Ivellor.”

Cyrus Vail felt his feelings of worry and annoyance return. Ivellor was a daemon-fey, a descendant of the evil elves who were banished from Avalon and crossbred with demons, bringing forth some very bizarre-looking descendants. Ivellor, for example, looked mostly human, save for odd patch of opaque black scales here and there, a pair of equally opaque black bat wings, and a long, whip-like tail the color of tar with a poisonous stinger on the end. “That is the last time I do work for you, Vail! I’m going to ask to be transferred to San Francisco or something!” he said calmly. “If it wasn’t dragons it was linnorms all the way! Moreover, I did not like about the rumors of what came from Malsheem either! They say that Asmodeus himself is beginning to stir, and if that happens-”

“The Stygian waters. Do you have them?” Cyrus Vail interrupted, knowing that the daemon-fey could ramble on for hours.

“Yeah, yeah. Here is the carafe, and I am off to take my leave… oh, and Mr. Manners? Here’s a pair of messages for you.”

“Hmm?” Holland Manners said absent-mindedly, as he – and Menghiz – rather watched Cyrus Vail tenderly grab the enchanted carafe full of water from the river Styx. “Good, I’ll take a look at them.”

Ivellor took one last look at the chamber, and hurriedly left, his form already becoming more human…

* * *

“Stop the churning, Jill!”

Hurriedly, the vampiress stopped working the pestle and readily jumped away, for the last half hour, both Cyrus Vail and Menghiz were busy howling spells and chants in ancient languages over the then-churning mass, and it glowed and compressed under their combined magical might. In fact, it seemed to be forming a shape, a vaguely humanoid shape at that…

“By the power of Ra!” Cyrus Vail shouted. “Mut, Nut, Khnum, Ptah! Oh, the form of Geb, I give thee the essence of a terrible lizard for strength, and constitution, and vitality! Oh, the breath of Shu and light of Ra – I give thee the mind of a blade singer for dexterity, and intelligence, and true shape! Oh, the tears of Tefnut – I give thee blood of Apep in place of blood of Nut to amplify your strength a thousandfold, and your cunning a thousandfold, and make thee a creature of the blackest evil! By the power of Ra – rise o Kuonai Yorubi and embrace your new life and new form!”

Even as he was saying that, Cyrus Vail broke open the glowing glass containers and cast their glowing contents into the luminous mass, and poured the corpse-black waters of the river Styx over it, extinguishing the glow while Menghiz howled chants in his native tongue in the background. And the luminous mass and the lightless Stygian waters connected – with a blast!

* * *

“You know, it’s a good thing that I attended Cado’s seminars on vampire physiology,” Jill muttered crossly, as her eyes restarted working again. “And it’s a good thing that I’m a vampire to begin with.”

“Quiet, you,” Holland Manners waved her concerns away, as Cyrus Vail stared, impressed by what the firm’s collective effort has done.

“It has worked,” he gasped. “It – she – is alive!”

“And what is she, exactly?” Menghiz seemed to be far less impressed than his arcane counterpart was. “Looks like a human tainted with a naga bloodline.”

“That’s because she is a human with a dinosaur’s blood in her veins,” Cyrus Vail snapped crossly, his good mood gone once more. “And you cannot get a more potent animal blood than a dinosaur’s, I have you know. I once seen a Tyrannosaurus rip a female wyvern and its’ nearly adult offspring to pieces and eat them, and believe me, as far as real dragons go, wyverns are not push-over.”

“So why didn’t you use a T-rex’s essence?”

“Precisely for that reason! We do not want to create too powerful a creature – not after what happened in Poland in 1809, now do we? That was a spectacular failure – and we pissed off Asmodeus as well.”

“Didn’t Ivellor say something about this already?” Menghiz said. “Right Holland?”

“I don’t know about Asmodeus, but he pissed me off, to top a long list. The guild of Stygian boatmen is suing our asses off, and the High Priest of the Dragon Queen sounds barely better.”

“Oh, well then I guess it’s the right time to give you queen Izanami’s bill,” Menghiz said with a dusty chuckle. “Cyrus, you old lich, it was fun making your mega-homunculus, but now I must be off. Coming, child?”

“Yup,” Jill nodded eagerly, unwilling to stick around seeing that Holland Manners was growing angrier by the minute, and Cyrus Vail just as quickly was growing peeved. “Stonebone mutation or not, I am off to use my vacation hours. Mr. Vail, it was fun. Let’s not do it again any time soon, though.”

And she and Menghiz were gone.

Absent-mindedly, Manners watched them leave, and then turned back to the wizard. “Vail, get her some clothing to wear, would you? Oh, and then try to find Ivellor and see how he will fare against our new weapon, too. After his performance, I feel that he owes us a lot of pain indeed!”

Cyrus Vail wordlessly fumed, as the head of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart left the chamber. He turned around and looked in the slanted reptilian eyes of the reborn Japanese assassin. “Well, we’re off to a rocky start, but never fear – we’ll get you started yet,” he chuckled, his mood improving, as his gaze slid lower down her body. “That ensouled vampire won’t know what hit him!”

* * *

Cyrus Vail did not know, but some distance a way, a sleeping woman riding a train to Los Angeles suddenly woke up, startled, briefly revealing her eyes that were as black as a starless, moonless night, before resuming her human glamour.

“Something new has coming into the world,” she mused softly. “Something changing. It’ll be fun uncovering what is it.”

The train rolled softly through the land to the city.

The head honchos of Wolfram and Hart did not know it, but their perfect plan just sprung a leak.


End file.
